


Still Keith

by MarzoftheStars



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Galra Keith (Voltron), Hunk and Keith bonding time!!!, Hunk is a very good friend, Keith needs someone to talk to, Keith's almost suicide hits him a bit late, Lance is concerned, Mental Breakdown, but sadly he is not in this fic, there will be tears, this is tooth-rotting hunk & keith fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-17
Updated: 2018-02-17
Packaged: 2019-03-19 16:19:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,117
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13708116
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MarzoftheStars/pseuds/MarzoftheStars
Summary: Keith comes to a realization. Hunk is there to help him through it.--Or: We Need More Keith & Hunk Content In This Goddamn Fandom





	Still Keith

**Author's Note:**

> I've seen little to no Hunk/Keith interactions in ANY fanfictions that I've read, and frankly, I AM SICK OF IT!! Keith needs a good friend to vent to and Hunk is the Bestest, Most Accepting, Most AMAZING Friend I have ever seen in my entire life. This also happens to be my first fic, so if you've got any constructive criticism about it, lay it on me folks.
> 
> Enjoy the floof~

"Keith, buddy? You feeling alright..?"    
  
Hunk's concerned tone snapped the red paladin out of his staring contest with the bowl of green goo sitting in front of him, and he blinked owlishly up at his friend. Hunk’s question had caught the attention of everyone else seated at the table, and Keith felt a light flush spreading across his cheeks as he tried to meet everyone's eyes without flinching.

Truth was, he really wasn’t alright. But he couldn’t let his team see that right now. He needed to be strong for them, and besides, he was never really good with confronting his feelings head-on anyway.

The Blade of Marmora had lost quite a few of its members during the fight, and had taken refuge on a nearby planet to regroup and come up with another battle plan. Without Keith even having to request it, Kolivan permitted him to join team Voltron on the castle ship while everything was sorted out, and Keith was extremely grateful. He needed his team after what had happened. They were always there for him, a comforting familial security blanket, even if he didn’t feel the need to tell them what he’d been planning to do the day before. Currently seated at the dining table, the team was waiting rather tensely for Lotor to emerge from his own pod, which he had slept in the night before. Allura had begrudgingly offered him a room at the castle ship, but he had-- to her relief-- turned her down.

Keith blinked, remembering that Hunk had asked a question and was still patiently waiting.   
  
"Um.. yeah?" Clearing his throat didn’t stop his voice from cracking. “I’m fine.”

Pidge and Shiro had both turned away from their conversation about Green’s defense systems to study Keith curiously, awaiting an answer, and Lance was beginning to look concerned from across the table. His eyebrows had developed the little worry-furrow between them, and his lips were quirked into a frown. Keith raised an eyebrow nonchalantly, hoping that every would lose interest and go back to what they were doing before he actually cracked.

  
"I dunno Keefers, you looked pretty pissed at that bowl," Lance cut in, glancing between Keith and his food with a disbelieving look. He huffed quietly and flicked a dismissive wrist at the blue paladin, averting his gaze. Lance always seemed to know when something was up, but Keith was determined to make him see he was perfectly fine.   
  
"No, I’m just pretty tired after, um… yesterday’s battle." His throat was scratchy, but he refused to reach for his water glass. 

The sickly pink color of the enemy ship’s force field suddenly flashed into his memories, approaching dangerously fast for how close it already was. The clashes of battle and screeching of his speeding pod drowned out any rational thought as he urged it to go even faster, shoving impatiently at the lever to his right and refusing to listen to any of the voices in his helmet screaming at him to  _ stop, slow down, you’re going to get yourself  _ **_killed_ ** . 

Swallowing down his goop suddenly seemed damn near impossible.   
  
"... Are you sure about that? _ " _ Shiro asked slowly, catching Keith’s eye and frowning cautiously. “We can tell Lotor to wait a bit longer if there’s something you want to talk about.” 

Keith barely heard the black paladin speak, as his attention had been pulled to the sudden inhuman sharpness of his canine teeth. He ran his tongue over them, willing them to stop before someone noticed something was off, and then realized that Shiro was still watching him and waiting for an answer.   
  
"Yeah, no. Like I said, just tired." He tried to smile reassuringly, but it felt more like a grimace. Besides, trying to smile while attempting to hide your teeth at the same time was _ sort of  _ a hard thing to accomplish.    
  
If he was telling the truth, he'd been trying to keep it under control for awhile now. Even before his sudden suicide mission, the stress and anxiety of simply being a  _ part  _ of Voltron had really been getting to him. Putting the fate of the  _ entire material universe _ in his hands? It was a little overwhelming at times, especially when his anxiety was already bad to begin with. The recent Lotor scavenger hunt had really hiked up his stress as well, so at least that was over and done with. 

His actual  _ transformations  _ hadn't started occurring until after he’d realized the origin of his dagger. The trials that occured at the Blade’s headquarters had triggered something weirdly primal in him, and he’d denied that anything was different for the first few days. It was only once he caught sight of himself in his bedroom mirror during a minor breakdown, yellow-tinged eyes and sharply-hooked fangs protruding from his lips, that he accepted that something had changed within him.

  
Keith prided himself on keeping his feelings and emotions in check around other people, but every once in a blue moon, they got out of control. There'd been plenty of private places to go whenever it happened back on the Blade’s ship, but here, his teammates might walk in on him  _ anywhere,  _ especially if he disappeared on them right before a big meeting with a possible ex-enemy. Keith  _ absolutely did not _ want any of his teammates finding him like  _ that _ , so he decided that his safest bet was to head to his room and use the excuse of getting ready.   
  
Ignoring Hunk's motherly frown, Pidge and Shiro’s confused gazes, and Lance’s worried scowl, Keith pushed his chair back from the table and cleared his throat. 

"I’m gonna take a quick shower. Freshen up before the meeting." He stood, already feeling his claws beginning to unsheath. Hoping that everyone would think the shower excuse was just because he was sweaty and dirty from the day before, he quickly yanked his sleeves down to cover his hands before striding determinedly to the nearest exit. He hoped he hadn’t seemed too suspicious, but wasn’t worried that anyone would follow him. They always seemed to know when he needed his space.  
  
Why? Why _now_ , of all times, when he knew that his team was gonna need him soon? Keith slammed a clenched fist into the wall as he speed-walked down the hallway towards his room, his curved claws digging into the flesh of his palm. _Why couldn't he just keep his stupid senseless emotions under control?_ He thought, for a moment, of going to Shiro for help.   
  
He slowed his gait, frowning at the uneasiness the thought wracked through him.   
  
Shiro hadn’t exactly been acting like himself lately, and Keith knew that he wasn’t the only one who had noticed. Something was off about the black paladin, something little and almost undetectable unless you were someone who knew him well enough to see it. An instinct from deep inside Keith was telling him that confiding in Shiro about this particular problem was a _very_ bad idea, and even though it hurt to hide something so big from the man he thought of as an older brother, he came to the conclusion that he would deal with this on his own. It won’t hurt Shiro if he doesn’t ever find out, right?   
  
Keith suddenly realized his ears had grown longer and _furrier_ , and he flicked one in dull annoyance as his door slid open, revealing his rather empty bedroom.

He reached for his knife as he stepped inside, wanting to take his mind off his, well…  _ mind _ , but his heart skipped a beat when he noticed the strap he usually kept it in was gone. Glancing down, he let out a sharp sigh.

He was still in his Marmora suit. His belt and other clothes, along with his knife, were back on his suicide pod.

The thought of his pod brought him back to the memory of his almost-death of yesterday’s fight, and his anxiety from not having his knife shot up even more.  _ What a mess. _   
  
Keith caught a glimpse of his gleaming yellow eyes in the mirror across from his desk before flopping down onto his bed face-first and trying to ban the memory from his head. Digging his claws into the sheets, he let out a muffled groan and curled his legs up to his chest so that he was laying sideways in a fetal position. Tears were pricking at his eyes, but he refused to let them fall. He'd keep it in just like he always had. _ It’s easier this way _ , he told himself.  _ It’s easier to pretend that everything’s fine than to let everything out and show everyone that cares about you how much of a shitshow your mind is. _ Keith didn't want to let everyone know how much of a shitshow his mind was. It was his shitshow, and he could deal with it on his own. There was no way in hell that he was going to tell any of his teammates that he had almost sacrificed himself like that. No way. Especially when they were about to have a huge, probably-life-changing meeting with the Galra halfbreed they’d been tracking down for the past…  _ however  _ long it had been.   
  
He glanced down in surprise when he felt the sheets ripping apart beneath his claws, and quickly pulled his hands up to cradle against his chest.    
  
His fingers were turning purple already, and Keith growled deep in his throat as he realized that it was getting worse. 

It had never happened this  _ fast  _ before, and he blinked his newly-golden eyes in a sort of awe as the purple twined up between his fingers and across his wrists, making its way towards his elbows and then stretching up to his shoulders. He bit his lip, careful not to actually pierce the skin with his now fully-grown fangs, and tried to soothe his racing heartbeat by taking a few deep breaths.    
  
_ You can keep this under control. You've hidden it from people before, you can hide it again. Just... repress. It’s easy, you do it all the time. All you have to do is stop thinking about it, you idiot! _   
  
Keith tried motivating himself, but it didn't work. His entire body was now a soft purple hue, his normally grey colored eyes now golden and pupiless. His dull black hair was now a deeper shade of purple, a few streaks of navy woven in as well. Cruelly-curved claws grew where his rather short fingernails had been before, and sharpened fangs gleamed from where his canine teeth used to be. The fuzz of his cat-like ears had spread down past his shirt collar, the soft purple fur fluffed up with agitation. He curled in on himself, knees pulled up to his chest and arms wrapped around them, trying to keep himself as stable as possible.    
  
He didn't know when he'd started to cry, but he realized there were tears staining his cheeks, a few fresh ones running down to drip off of his chin. He sniffled pitifully, grabbing the closest pillow and hugging it instead of his knees to his chest. 

_ God _ , was he  _ glad  _ that none of his teammates could see him now. He didn’t want to imagine the looks of horror and shock and  _ disgust  _ they’d be watching him with. Pidge and Hunk would never talk to him again. Shiro would be ashamed. Lance would turn his nose up in disgust, and probably never even glance his way anymore. Allura would kick him off of her ship, and that would be it. He’d be left to his own devices out in some pod, expected to go back to the Marmora headquarters and never return. He’d learn to be a functioning member of the Blade; performing his tasks with confidence, expanding his skill sets, taking the advice of his mentors. 

He’d still be fighting against the Galra, even if he wasn’t a part of Voltron. Even if he didn’t have his teammates, his  _ family,  _ to turn to when he was feeling like this. Even if he would never get to practice braiding Allura’s hair again. Even if he didn’t have Lance to tease ( _ flirt with? _ ) anymore. Even if he didn’t have Pidge as the younger sister he’d never had to mess around with. Even if it meant he had to get used to the Blade’s dull food instead of Hunk’s home-cooked meals anymore. Even if he would never have Shiro to look up to in times of need.

… Even if it meant sacrificing himself for the good of the universe. 

And that’s when it hit him. 

He’d almost  _ died _ . 

Good god, he’d almost  _ sacrificed himself _ , and his teammates hadn’t even known what he was about to do. He would have died without ever getting to say goodbye to any of them. What kind of team encourages its members to  _ kill themselves _ before asking for backup? The memories of Thace and Ulaz giving their lives flashed into Keith’s mind, and he had to clamp his hands over his mouth to choke back the sob that was threatening to escape. They died for no other reason besides the fact that the other members were too self-absorbed to stop them or offer their help.

Clenching his eyes shut, his face stuffed into his pillow, letting out wet sobs that were barely muffled by the fabric, Keith decided that he didn’t want to go back to the Blade of Marmora. 

His claws dug into the downy filling of the now-mutilated pillow he was whimpering into, and he groaned frustratedly through his tears. He hadn’t realized how much he’d missed his team. How had he managed to stay away for so long? If he hadn’t been drowning in his own snot and tears at the moment, Keith would have gone out and hugged everyone sitting at that table. But he had another problem to deal with before he acted on his thoughts.

Pulling away from his soggy, now-completely-destroyed pillow, he sniffled and reached up to wipe at his eyes, which was kind of hard because he had to focus on not gouging them out with his wicked claws. Sitting up, he glanced wearily at himself in the mirror across the room and almost gasped out loud. His hair was bunched up on one side of his head, his yellow eyes were puffy and looked as if he’d sat with his eyes open in a pool full of chlorine for about ten minutes straight, and the worst part was that he was still totally Galra. If anything, it had gotten worse during his sob-fest.   
  
He was just about to climb out of his nest of torn sheets and pillows to take a cold shower and try to calm down when his bedroom door slid open with an audible  _ whoosh _ .

Keith stopped breathing.   
  
"... Holy  _ quiznak _ ." An almost-whisper from behind him.   
  
He didn’t want to turn and face whoever it was. He wanted them to leave, or maybe go tell everyone and get it over with. Hell, why not just kill him now and end his suffering?   
  
" _ Keith _ , oh my..." The voice again, a little louder this time.   
  
He decided to just rip the band-aid off and face them, the reality of the situation setting in and causing a clump of anxiety to well up in his stomach. Squeezing his eyes shut and taking a deep breath to prepare himself, he turned to face the door.

It was Hunk.    
  
Keith didn't move from his half-sitting up position, painfully aware of the fresh tears welling up in his  _ yellow-fucking-Galra  _ eyes. He couldn’t make out the expression on his face. It was unusually guarded for the yellow paladin, and it definitely wasn’t helping Keith’s anxiety.

  
Hunk hated the Galra. Keith was honestly expecting him to turn and run. He was expecting him to go tell the others that their red paladin was a fraud. He was expecting him to warn everyone that there was a  _ Galra  _ on the ship. He was expecting him to be afraid, to yell, to do something to protect himself against the obvious  _ monster  _ that was sniffling pathetically on the bed in front of him other than stand there with that stupidly emotionless stare that was making Keith hyperventilate. 

When Hunk suddenly strode forward, a look of fierce intent overcoming his features, Keith was definitely expecting him to beat his ass right then and there.   
  
He  _ wasn't  _ expecting him to hug him.   
  
Strong, sturdy arms wound around Keith’s shoulders, and he was suddenly pulled from his spot on the bed and into Hunk's broad chest, the yellow paladin’s hands immediately beginning to rub small, gentle circles into his back. He blinked, the tears from before finally making their way down his cheeks and dripping wetly off his chin. Shoving his face forward and  _ whimpering  _ into Hunk’s shirt, Keith’s arms reached up to wrap around his friend’s neck in one of the tightest hugs he'd ever given anyone.    
  
"Hunk, H-Hunk I'm so  _ sorry  _ I-"    
  
"Stop it, stop apologizing." Hunk's surprisingly soothing voice was muffled by Keith’s hair." I don't understand what's happening right now, but I know that everything's gonna be okay. You're okay. You need to breathe, Keith." He whispered, one of his hands pausing its rubbing and rising to run itself through Keith’s tangled purple hair. “Just breathe, buddy. It's okay."    
  
Keith could physically feel himself calming down. The claws that were currently digging into poor Hunk's shirt began to retract, and his fangs were shrinking back into their normal size. Hunk's gentle hands and kind whispers were really beginning to relax him, and he buried his tear-soaked face deeper into his yellow nightshirt that he hadn’t changed out of since waking up, squeezing his eyes shut and willing his body to return to normal. Keith froze as Hunk took a deep breath, gently pulling away while still keeping his arms around the red paladin’s back. His brown eyes looked into Keith’s yellow ones, but instead of seeing fear or disgust, he saw nothing but reassurance gazing back at him.   
  
"Okay, I don't want to pressure you into telling me anything, but-"    
  
"No!” Keith interrupted, surprising not only Hunk, but himself as well. “I  _ want  _ to tell you.” 

Hunk smiled softly in return and sat back, crossing his legs and folding his hands together in front of him as if to prove he was prepared to listen. "I understand if you want to leave some things out, I just... want to know what's happening. And I want to know how I can help."   
  
Keith’s heart clenched at the determined look on his friend's face, and it was all he could do to keep himself from lurching forward and hugging him again.    
  
Turning away from his curious gaze, Keith took a deep breath, scowling as he noticed that he was still completely Galra, minus the claws and teeth. As long as it didn't make Hunk uncomfortable... He opened his mouth and everything came pouring out. He told Hunk all of it. He told him about how much he missed living with them and how he had almost run away from the Blade multiple times because of it. He told him about how some of the problems he’d had as a child had come back and affected him while he was away. He told him how he discovered that not only was he part Galra, but that he transformed like this whenever his emotions got out of control. He told him that his emotions have  _ definitely  _ been getting out of control lately. He told him that he’d almost killed himself because of the impulsive thoughts that came with the problems reawakening in him. He told him how he’d finally come to the conclusion that he no longer wants to work with the Blade of Marmora. And Hunk did nothing but listen patiently.   
  
Keith turned back to face him when he was finished, but Hunk didn't flinch away like Keith was expecting. Instead, he studied the red paladin with a gentle frown, pursing his lips in the way that he usually did when he was deep in thought.

A soft smile tugged at the corners of Hunk’s lips and he huffed out a short laugh. The red paladin frowned uneasily.   
  
"W-what?" He asked, tucking a strand of still-purple hair behind his fluffy Galra ear.    
  
"You're actually pretty cute like that."    
  
Keith gaped.  _ Cute? I just told him every awful thought that I’ve had in the past year because of this stupid gene, and he thinks my murderous, alien,  _ Galra  _ form is cute?!  _  "... Shut up!" Keith grumbled, feeling his ears flatten against his head. Hunk laughed again, reaching out to timidly stroke at his friend’s fur. His hand had barely grazed Keith’s ear before he was leaning into the touch, almost seeming to  _ purr  _ as Hunk scratched gently behind it. It was strangely comforting, being pet, even if it was a tad humiliating that he was reacting the way that he was.   
  
"Oh my god, I was lying about you being cute. You're  _ adorable _ ." Hunk gasped quietly, reaching up with his other hand to pet behind his left ear as well. Keith liked to think that he would've come up with a great comeback just then, but he'd been too busy enjoying Hunk's fingers rubbing expertly behind his ears to properly reply.    
  
_ What the hell? _ Since when had this felt so... wonderful?    
  
"And Keith..?" Hunk’s voice broke through Keith’s momentary daze, and he opened his eyes to look back up at his friend, a jolt of anxiety running through him again. "I know that you think it’s wrong for you to be this way, but it’s really not.” Keith opened his mouth to retaliate, but Hunk removed one of his hands from behind Keith’s ear and promptly smacked it over his mouth instead.

“Everyone has problems of their own, and they all deal with them in different ways. Sometimes it’s not exactly healthy, what people do to make themselves feel better, but talking about it with someone always helps. Yes, it was bad that you felt the need to do that for us yesterday, but it doesn’t matter now. That’s in the past. I want you to know that I will  _ always  _ be here for you when you need to talk. No matter what species you are." Keith stopped leaning into Hunk, willing the new wave of tears to back the fuck off. "You're a great guy to be around,” the yellow paladin continued. “Nobody's going to care if you're human, or if you're Galra, or if you're some other weird alien race that we don't know about yet. As long as you keep being  _ you _ , everything's gonna be fine. We're gonna go out there and talk to Lotor, and we're gonna save the dang universe, and I promise I won't let anything happen to you. No more sacrifices, no more unnecessary deaths, no more hidden feelings. Understand?"    
  
Keith sniffled. "Damn it Hunk, I thought I was done crying for the day," he grumbled as he fell forward into his friend’s arms again. Hunk patted his back for a few more minutes, allowing Keith to calm down a bit more before speaking again.

“... And by no more  _ hidden feelings _ , I mean you can tell me  _ any  _ feelings you’ve been hiding from the rest of us.” Keith frowned at the implicative tone of Hunk’s voice.

“What do you mean..?” He asked cautiously, picking his head up from where it was resting on Hunk’s chest and raising an eyebrow. 

“I  _ mean,”  _ the yellow paladin was full-on grinning now, “you can tell me  _ anything _ you’ve been feeling. You know. Your thoughts on my cooking, any prank ideas you come up with, what you think about a certain  _ blue paladin… _ ” he trailed off, one side of his mouth quirking up and turning his grin into a smirk.

_ Oh. _

“Hunk!” Keith shrieked, burying his face in his hands. “Oh my- I swear to  _ god  _ if you tell anybody, I’ll- how did you-? I never even said-!”

“Relax, buddy! Lance has no idea.” Hunk reassured his blushing friend, crossing his arms as if he were proud of the fact that he hadn’t told Lance yet. “But seriously, any thoughts on my cooking lately? I’ve been trying to improve with the very few ingredients I’ve been given.” Keith couldn’t help but smile softly at the yellow paladin, muttering something about how he’ll pay closer attention to his next meal.

He hesitated for a second before scooting closer to Hunk on the tiny bed, and he felt one of the yellow paladin’s hands reach up to pet behind his ear again. "Thank you," Keith sighed sleepily, and Hunk responded with a quiet, "Anytime, bud. Anytime.”

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Keith hasn't been cuddled since he was a bab and Hunk is the greatest cuddler in the known universe, so you'd better goddamn believe that I'm going to make them cuddle!! This was also extremely self-indulgent, please don't mind my projecting onto Keith~
> 
> Leave a comment!!  
> Tell me shit I should fix!!!  
> Also, hmu on Tumblr cause I'm a lonely bitch -- https://marzofthestars.tumblr.com/  
> (just,, copy/paste the link because ao3 is being a hoe)


End file.
